It has been reported that businesses faced a 20% rise in cyber security threats last year versus 2019, with the first COVID-19 lockdown in March serving as the catalyst for a year of increased efforts to infiltrate corporate networks.
Businesses in the UK each faced 686,961 attempts on average to breach their systems online in 2020, according to specialist internet service provider Beaming. This equates to an attempted attack every 46 seconds, with 2020 proving to be the busiest year on record for cyber-attacks.
<p>Covid-19, remote working and the resulting business struggles are largely the cause for the surge in cyber-attacks facing companies throughout 2020 and hackers are clearly targeting these vulnerable times to commit crime. In fact, Barracuda’s research reveals insights about how targeted attacks evolved last year and ways in which cybercriminals are maximizing their impact through the exploitation of fears around the COVID-19 pandemic . <a href=\"https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.barracuda.com_glossary_business-2Demail-2Dcompromise-3Futm-5Fsource-3D42964-26utm-5Fmedium-3Dblog&d=DwMGaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=-sUOjrx0RcUHPP5bnh_8oQzHq66RA2OUUvELnqqNDxg&m=Zhk2hl2S4tLKmTDcIRxP_uKxHJ6G_MEGaRYt2nOCia4&s=-FNAm-rAjrTDsSVO332JfBYu6Y0Pg39XWNoI63st9Tc&e=\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?uhttps-3A__www.barracuda.com_glossary_business-2Demail-2Dcompromise-3Futm-5Fsource-3D42964-26utm-5Fmedium-3DblogdDwMGaQceuGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMMr-sUOjrx0RcUHPP5bnh_8oQzHq66RA2OUUvELnqqNDxgmZhk2hl2S4tLKmTDcIRxP_uKxHJ6G_MEGaRYt2nOCia4s-FNAm-rAjrTDsSVO332JfBYu6Y0Pg39XWNoI63st9Tce&source=gmail&ust=1610623544060000&usg=AFQjCNEDk65P1DStD3L4aPSJwMATFQXk7A\">Business email compromise (BEC)</a> now makes up 12% of the spear-phishing attacks analysed, an increase from just 7% in 2019 and 72% of COVID-19-related attacks are scamming, meaning that attackers prefer to use COVID-19 in their less targeted scamming attacks that focus on fake cures and donations.</p> <p> </p> <p>Business owners in the UK have a responsibility to protect their customers and employees against all data-theft and hacking attempts. They can do this by equipping their servers with cloud-based firewalls and AI-enabled security defence applications, alongside diligent security and online threat awareness training for remote employees. Sophisticated email security can also be extremely effective in blocking large amounts of malicious content aimed at busy or susceptible workers</p>